Jobs in the industry can range from cutting and preparing steel pipe, welding joints, keeping the Sealife Center’s water flowing and helping power Shemya and Dutch Harbor. According to APICC, many Alaskans in this field will soon be retiring, opening doors to a career that pays anywhere from $24 an hour as a paid apprentice, to $60 an hour for a foreman.

“Absolutely awesome job, incredibly rewarding,” said Carty. “If you enjoy working with your hands and having, as I like to call it, visual gratification of a job every day, you can stand back at the end of the day, look at what you accomplished and know it’s going to be there for the next 50, 60, hopefully 100 years and really feel good about it.”

United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Apprentice Program Requirements